The Escape Artist loses the plot but nets 4.6m for BBC One
Last night brought the finale of BBC One’s tense thriller, The Escape Artist (9pm), in which David Tennant’s arrogant barrister gave up on the justice system altogether, instead opting for a bout of good old-fashioned cold-blooded revenge (which makes for much better TV anyway).
After seeing his wife dispatched by a serial killer in which he was obligated to defend (we’ve all been there) the tenth Doctor Who got a little bit twitchy and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Two weeks ago the opening episode of the ludicrously-plotted legal drama secured 5 million viewers and then fell to 4.1 million last week. Yesterday’s grand finale saw viewer’s interest climb up again, with 4.6 million watching as Tennant’s new-found brand of justice was being unleashed. The avenging barrister’s actions secured the 9pm slot with a 20% share and generated 478 tweets per minute.
At the same time, Natasha Kaplinsky once again donned her Sherlock hat and attempted to track down some missing persons in order to fill an hour of ITV’s midweek schedule.
Only coming a few weeks after the intrepid TV personality hunted down some sex offenders in On the Run, this week Natasha decided to use her predatory powers to reunite some families and melt some prime time hearts. Similar to Long Lost Family, but without the pretence of emotional connections, Missing Without Trace (9pm) was not only missing an ‘a’ from the title but also some believable heart from its presenter.
Reeling in some help from actual investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas, Natasha and her hard-working team of researchers pulled in 2.6 million viewers and an 11% share.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 had a suspicious spring in its step for a Tuesday night as it celebrated the bright and colourful world of West End productions in The Sound of Musicals (9pm). 1.2 million viewers and a 6% share tuned in to learn what exactly happens to all those disposable children who feature in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory .
This audience was only bettered an hour later as the channel that was Born Risky – but was a parody of itself by the time it hit 30 – decided to make a light entertainment show out of an anxiety disorder. Channel 4’s biggest audience of the day, 1.7 million viewers (a 7% share), tuned in to watch Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners (8pm) – a show that throws people living with OCD into a filthy house.
On ITV, Martin Lewis attempted to make frugality look as appealing as possible while being interrupted every 15 minutes by ads that bombarded viewers with images of products they don’t need. The Martin Lewis Money Show (8pm) attracted 2.8 million viewers and a 12% share.
The 8pm slot treated the BBC well with MasterChef: The Professionals (BBC Two, 8pm) securing 3.4 million viewers, while Holby City (BBC One, 8pm) brought in an audience of 5.1 million and a 22% share.
The absence of Coronation Street saw the two remaining soaps bare their teeth in a desperate bid for Tuesday’s number one slot. Emmerdale was first up at 7pm on ITV and the episode found Amy Wyatt in a pensive mood as she was mulling over whether to snatch a child or not.
6.8 million viewers watched as the Geordie tearaway’s plans were thrown in the air, netting a 32% share – the day’s second biggest audience and ITV’s only entry in the top ten.
Which meant that former reigning champion EastEnders‘ (BBC One, 7:30pm) recent success seems to be less of a blip on the radar and that the Walford soap may actually be holding on to the silver medal for some time yet.
It may have just been a Tuesday evening but there was plenty of plotting and backstabbing going on in E20. The shouty drama pulled in Tuesday’s biggest audience – something that may be down to the reappearance of soap stud Max Branning. The bald Lothario’s trial was watched by 7.6 million viewers and a 35% share. The tense legal proceedings also generated 1,380 tweets per minute while it was airing.
The Social TV Analytics report is a daily leaderboard displaying the latest social TV analytics Twitter data from SecondSync. The table shows the top UK TV shows as they are mentioned on Twitter, which MediaTel has correlated with the BARB overnight programme ratings for those shows (only viewable to BARB subscribers).
Overnight data is available each morning in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations